Attack on the Living Dead
by Sam-at-221B-TARDIS
Summary: Spring break had just begun and the 104th expected fun with friends, but after their superiors tell them that an epidemic has begun spreading throughout Japan, the 104th must escape the dangers in order to help battle the them. Only those who fight will see the light of day. Only those who haven't been infected will live and only those who survive will remember the dead.
1. Chapter 1

_**So, writing Free from the Dead sort of inspired this one and JeanMarco being the otp of otps for me just sorta sealed the deal. Hope you enjoy the prologue!**_

_**And thanks to my best friend for coming up with the title for me! Thank you heicchous!**_

* * *

"Armin!"

Armin took his eyes off the ground and saw Eren running towards him. He gave Eren a small smile once he caught up and sighed, "You know I can walk back to MARIA on my own, you don't have to come pick me up every day."

"What do you mean I don't have to come?" Eren asked. He lightly bumped Armin's shoulder with his own, "Who's going to fight all the bullies away?" Scratching the back of his head he apologetically added, "Sorry I'm late. I just went to see mom."

"It's okay. I hope she's getting better," Armin said. He laughed lightly, "And Mikasa always fought them away, but good try."

"Oh, whatever. I just feel like you're working yourself pretty hard, what with military training in the morning and that medical program you entered in the afternoon." Eren looked over to where he knew the Mie Prefectural Shima Hospital stood. "I've gotta keep an eye on you," Eren continued, "by the way, mom's doing well. Doctor said she'd be getting crutches next week. Who knew falling down a flight of stairs could get you that hurt, right?" Eren shrugged, turning back to Armin. "Hey, what's wrong?" Eren asked, stopping Armin when he saw how upset he looked.

Armin had begun gripping his bag's strap until his knuckle turned white. Eren could see that he was trying really hard to keep up appearances, but underneath it all Armin seemed really shaken up. He glanced at Eren before turning away and taking a deep breath. "It was just…a patient at the hospital."

Eren didn't know whether he should pry but Armin was the one who always told him that it was best to talk out his feelings, so he asked, "What happened?"

"He passed away, about 20 minutes ago." Armin gripped his bag tighter.

"You don't have to tell me the whole thing if you don't want to," Eren said, not wanting to make Armin feel worse by talking about what happened.

"I-it's okay. Really," Armin looked up at the clouds tinted pink by the setting sun, "He died of blood loss. We tried to stitch up his wound, but he was losing so much blood." He wrapped his left arm around himself, "We even gave him a blood transfusion. I should know, I'm the one they sent to the blood room to get the blood. AB +. But he still died." He kicked a small stone in his path. "There've been a couple of our patients who died of blood loss today. I wasn't there for the other ones, just for this one. But it still really…" Armin trailed off with a small sigh.

Eren wasn't the best at comforting others. Words weren't his forte. So Eren did the only thing he knew to do. He held Armin's hand. He tentatively reached out as they continued to walk and slipped his fingers in between Armin's, and when he felt the way Armin held him like a lifeline, he knew he'd done the right thing.

They hadn't held hands in a really long time, only doing it whenever either of them was really upset. It had begun when they were children and other kids would ruthlessly pick on Armin for being smart and relatively small. Mikasa would take care of the bullies and Eren would hold Armin's hand until his tears subsided into sniffles and hiccups. Then Armin began to use the same technique whenever Eren would get really upset for whatever reason. Once they joined the Military Accelerated Regiment Institutional Academy (MARIA for short) about a year ago, they stopped comforting each other that way. However, Eren felt a complete sense of peace whenever he held Armin's hand. As if the brewing storm clouds in his mind parted and allowed him to think with a clear mind.

He looked over at Armin and saw him still pointedly staring at the ground. Eren rubbed soothing circles with his thumb along Armin's hand. Armin peeked up at him, his blond bangs falling over his storm blue eyes. Eren gave Armin's hand a squeeze. "Don't worry, I'm right here. I'm here for you," Eren reassured.

Armin gave him a teary-eyed smile.

"Eren," a voice rang out from down the road, "you have to start locking the door to your room." Mikasa began scolding Eren in her usual monotone as she approached the two. She glanced down at their interlocked hands but didn't say anything. "How's mom?"

"She's great," Eren replied a bit preoccupied, still worried about Armin.

Mikasa came to walk beside Armin as they continued down the street. "How was the hospital?" she asked.

"It was good, yeah," Armin lied, wiping his eyes with his right hand. Mikasa saw him try to hide that he was upset but only glanced up at Eren. Eren shook his head infinitesimally, in a gesture of _Don't ask right now, I'll tell you later._ Mikasa shrugged and pulled up her scarf as a particularly cold breeze blew past.

"Weird, it still being so cold even though we're in the spring time," Eren pointed out, changing the subject.

"You're right," Armin agreed. "Apparently we might even get rain these next few days."

They'd arrived at MARIA then, going through the high gates which had a stone sentinel holding an upraised sword standing on each side, MARIA's signature icon – the woman with the crown and sword. The grounds seemed pretty empty which was probably due to the weather and due to the fact that it was Friday. Some of the 104th went home for the Spring holiday, opting to spend their two weeks off with their families. A handful of the 104th decided to stay at MARIA, not really seeing a point in leaving for such a small amount of time and instead choosing to wait another month and a half until they get a longer break for summer. Others were only off campus and hanging out in town, whilst the rest were probably at the boy's dorm's common room since Connie and Sasha had extended an invitation to all of the remaining 104th to come and have a _Super Smash Bros_ _Brawl_ tournament.

"We gonna go to the tournament or what?" Eren asked.

"What, so you can get your butt kicked?" Armin smiled.

Eren flushed a bit, "No, this time I'm going to make sure a put up a fight. Plus, it's only a game." Eren huffed a little feeling affronted that Armin didn't believe in him.

Armin only laughed. "Yeah, we'll go. Can we just stop by our room to drop off my things?"

"Yeah, alrite."

They quickly shuffled into the boys' dorm and out of the biting cold that had begun to nip at any of their exposed skin and were hit by a wave of delicious smells.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, Sasha cooked for us," Mikasa commented, even though Armin and Eren already seemed to notice. No one cooked as deliciously as Sasha, except for maybe Jean – and that was only on a good day. "Shadis gave her special permission to us the kitchens today."

Eren grinned. "Lemme guess – she made him herb roast lamb chops?"

"And she made Hannes tacos de carne asada so that he'd help her soften up Shadis."

"Sasha really does cover all the bases," Armin mused walking up the stairs with the others close behind.

Eren and Armin's room was on the 2nd floor, in between Marco and Jean and Reiner and Bertholdt's rooms. Armin put his bag away and then they left to the common room on the ground floor.

"Jaeger, you ready to get owned?" Jean called out as soon as he saw the three walk into the lobby.

"Nah, but I think you are," Eren smirked.

Jean seemed to want to call out another retort but was interrupted by Marco, "Come sit over here – there's some empty seats left."

Actually, the empty seats Marco pointed out where the _only _seats left. Surprisingly, all the 104th members who hadn't left to see their families were all crowded in the common room. It was probably the prospect of Sasha's incredible cooking that had lured them all to the tournament.

Armin sat beside Jean and Marco on one of the couches and Eren and Mikasa sat on the ground right in front of them. Mikasa quickly made herself comfortable and leaned against Marco's legs, something which Marco allowed without complaint. Eren tried the same with Jean but instead received a jab in the ribs and a flick on the ear.

"You could've only said no," Eren mumbled, rubbing his red ear.

"That wouldn't've been as fun," Jean shrugged.

Just then a list came around for those who wanted to participate in the tournament. Everyone signed up except for Armin and Mina, who decided to just watch.

"Okay!" Sasha clapped, drawing everyone's attention to the front of the room and away from their chatter and the food that was laid out in the back. "The tournament's about to start – it'll be the initial two person death round, with four players fighting each other. The two who have the lowest scores are out. After that it'll be one-on-one's, until we finally have the winner!"

Connie brought over the list and a pen and began scribbling on a blank sheet of paper. He held up the tournament outline, with 11 boxes, the outermost filled in with four names each. "So there'll be 11 rounds. Each round lasts 10 minutes. Top two players in these first four rounds advance, the other two are eliminated. Your character choice will be what you stick with for the rest of the tournament." He turned on the flat screen TV to show it already on the character choice screen. "Mikasa, Eren, Jean, Marco," he tossed a Wii remote to each one, "you're up first!"

Marco and Mikasa quickly chose their character – Pikachu and Zelda, respectively.

"You're going Sheik aren't you?" Armin stage whispered. Mikasa gave him a wry smile.

Jean immediately chose Link and smirked over at Eren, "You are sooooo going down."

"I don't think so," Eren countered, choosing Pit.

They chose a random stage and their characters all materialized within the Temple as the countdown began. Then…

"FIGHT!" The voice rang out.

Link immediately bee lined for Pit hopping over a few obstacles before reaching his target and dealing a dash attack.

Pit dodged, hopping backwards before dealing Link 12% damage by slashing at his feet.

Slashing forward, Link managed to push Pit back, before knocking him to the ground with his shield and hitting him with the hilt of his sword. Pit bounced back on his feet, flying high into the air before coming down hard on Link, sending him flying offscreen.

"What the fuck, Jaeger? How the hell'd that happen so fast?" Jean muttered, turning to glare at Eren.

"Must be skill," Eren smirked.

"If that's how it's going to be then," Jean huffed as Link reappeared on screen.

As soon as Link touched the ground he was on Pit like a ravenous dog on a hunk of bloody meat. He slashed left, right, and center, tossing Pit this way and that. Pit managed to get away, only to be hauled back when Link yanked him back with his chain.

"How do you like that," Jean grinned, delivering the decisive blow. He smacked Pit with his shield and sent him off screen.

"Jean, that was low," Eren fumed.

"Not as low as your skill," Jean retorted.

They continued on like that, slashing and stabbing, kicking and punching, sending each other off screen with infuriating little comments until the match ended.

"How's defeat feel, Jaeger?" Jean smirked from the couch as the match ended and the game buffered before delivering the results.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me Jea…" Eren's words died in his mouth as everyone stared at the TV.

Sheik was standing at the forefront of the fighters, followed by a clapping Pikachu, who stood in front of a begrudging Link and Pit who stood side by side.

Mikasa had gotten first place, Marco second, and Jean and Eren had tied for third.

There were the stifled giggles and laughs as everyone realized that the two most competitive people were out of the tournament.

"Well…I guess Eren and Jean are out," Sasha declared, fighting her laughter with a tough straight face.

"What were you saying Eren? About you putting up a fight?" Armin giggled as the group passed their controllers down to the next players.

"I'm gonna grab something to eat," Eren mumbled.

"Same," Jean grumbled, getting off the couch and following Eren to the snack table.

Eren and Jean awkwardly scooped the Italian themed food and bakery sweets onto their dishes side by side until Jean blurted out, "That was a – good game, Jaeger."

"Yeah, same goes for you, Jean," Eren grinned, feeling the tension of the situation melt.

"But don't think I'm going to go that easy on you next time," Jean commented, adding a few brownies to his plate.

Eren rolled his eyes, "Mmhmm. I'm counting on it."

By the time they got back to the group the second match was already over, revealing that Reiner and Bertholdt had gotten eliminated by Annie and Ymir.

"Here," Eren gave a plate to Mikasa and to Armin, "I hope I got what you like."

Armin took a bite of garlic bread. "Mmm, Sasha you never disappoint!"

"Thanks Armin!" Sasha exclaimed, turning away from the TV long enough to shoot Armin a smile before going back to trying to swallow Connie's Squirtle with Kirby.

"You like sugary stuff, right?" Jean asked, handing Marco a plate laden with cookies and brownies and the occasional Italian food item from behind the couch as he came to reclaim his seat beside his best friend.

"Mmmhm, thanks Jean!" Marco beamed, taking a bite out of a brownie.

Mikasa regarded the cookie she was holding and nibbled on it a little. "Victory sure does taste sweet, right Marco?"

"Yeah, I agree with you Mikasa," Marco laughed, taking another bite of his brownie.

"Last time I'm getting you your food," Jean muttered under his breath.

Marco bumped his shoulder to Jean's playfully, "Aw, c'mon Jean. I'm only messing."

"Yeah, uh-huh," Jean mumbled, eating one of his pizza muffins.

"Don't be like that Jean! C'mon, let's see a smile," Marco smiled mischievously, taking advantage of Jean exposed position as he ate and running his fingers across his side.

Jean jumped about three feet in the air. "Ay, what the hell Marco! That tickles!"

"Kinda the point," Marco smirked, and began motioning to Jean as if he were going to tickle him again.

"Alrite, alrite already – I'm smiling! See!" Jean forced a smile onto his face that looked much more like a painful grimace that made Marco laugh which then brought out a genuine smile from Jean.

The tournament carried on without a hitch (and without any more sore losers). The final match was fought between Annie and Mikasa and was a grueling 10 minute long battle which ended with Mikasa's Sheik overcoming Annie's Samus, earning Mikasa the title of "The 104th's Super Smash Queen".

It had just begun to get dark out, and the group was still in the video game competition mood, so Connie hooked up his Wii U. "How would you guys like to race a few rounds of Mario Kart 8?"

"You're so on!" Sasha grinned, taking a remote and plopping down on the couch once again.

A handful of the 104th had retired to their rooms after the _Super Smash _tournament, which only left Reiner, Bertholdt, Annie, Ymir, Christa, Sasha, Connie, Marco, Jean, Eren, Mikasa, and Armin in the common room. They all engaged in playful races trying to see if they could get through all the circuits before someone got tired and quit.

"Beat you fair and square, Jaeger!"

"That was a dirty trick, Jean, and you know it!"

"Pardon me, but since when is using a Mushroom at the last minute a dirty trick?"

It was almost midnight and the teens had begun to hold one-on-one races amongst the group and were just amusing themselves by watching Jean and Eren bickering when Shadis and Hannes walked into the common room.

"Oh, hey Hannes! Hey Shadis! How'd you like the food?" Sasha smiled from where she was sprawled on the ground.

"It was delicious, Blouse." Sasha's cooking always put Shadis in a good mood, but today he seemed more serious than usual.

Armin could sense something off immediately. "What's wrong?"

Shadis and Hannes (who had been fidgeting with his hands nervously) exchanged a solemn glance. It was Shadis who spoke. "We'll tell you as soon as you're all here in the common room. It's best to tell you all at once."

The group could feel that this was their cue to go round up the other trainees, so a few detatched themselves from the group (Mikasa and Sasha and Marco and Bertholdt) and went either upstairs to the guys' rooms or next door to the girls' dorms.

Everyone once again found themselves in the dorm room, some a little disheveled and groggy from having been woken up from sleep, and other's looking grim and worried. Shadis and Hannes stood before the group as they waited for them to settle down.

Hannes began first. "First of all, we don't want you to worry – MARIA is the safest place in town, so you really have no reason _to _worry – "

"Worry about what?" someone called out, prompting a nervous chatter to break out here and there.

"What Hannes is trying to say," Shadis continued, effectively quieting down the group with his commanding voice, "is that word has reached us from our superiors that an epidemic has begun to spread throughout Japan. The first recorded cases occurred only a few hours ago. The virus spreads from contact with those who are infected. As of right now, no case has occurred in Shima, but we've been told to evacuate the population and send them to Tokyo, where they will then be flown to an ally country that has opened its doors to our refugees. But there is no need to panic-"

"'No need to panic'," Jean scoffed, "you come here at midnight and tell us some crazy disease has infected Japan, that Japanese citizens are being evacuated from the _country_ and you think there's no need to panic?"

"Yeah, what does the disease even do?" Connie asked.

Hannes and Shadis shared another quick look as Shadis carried on, "We aren't allowed to disclose that information to anyone."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"How serious is this?"

"What are we going to do?"

"HEY!" Eren shouted over the multitude of voices that had begun to ring out after Shadis's final comment. They all turned to look at him. "From what little info they're able to give us," he nodded over at Shadis and Hannes, "we know it's serious – that's all that really matters. Now, we've been training for a couple of years so we should know how to act during a situation like this." He looked around at his fellow comrades. "We have to help evacuate everyone."

"Whoa, Jaeger Bombastic. Thanks for calming down the masses but, I said 'we'," Shadis pointed at himself then at Hannes, "for a reason. You said it yourself – you've only been _training._ We can't risk you out there. The police force will help us. Just stay put. Like Hannes said earlier, it's _safe _ here. So, _stay _here."

"But-"

"No, buts. You're all staying here. We'll be out in the main office, outlining evacuation routes." Shadis put on his jacket's hood and left the dorm for the main office without waiting for anyone to make any complaints.

Hannes looked at the scared teens. "We'll be out and helping evacuate people in our jeeps after we finish with the routes." He lowered his voice slightly, "I've been sworn to secrecy but…" He seemed to be about to tell them what was _really _going on but decided against it, "just trust us. You'll be safe here. All we're allowed to tell you is that virus is deadly and…" he seemed to fight with himself slightly before quickly adding, "it doesn't just stop once you're dead." Hannes then mimicked Shadis: he put on his hood and began to walk out towards the exit to then go to the main office.

"Wait, what does that mean?" Armin called out, stopping Hannes at the door.

"I can't tell you," Hannes answered, shaking his head, finally stepping out and getting enveloped by the night.

* * *

**_How was it? Should I keep it going? If I do, I'll probably put up a new chapter every month - so, see you next month!_**  
**_Btw, I hope you guys caught the reference to the Attack on Titan Abridged video !_**

**_PS, that whole Eren-and-Armin-holding-hands scene was inspired by this post/84525124863/i-have-this-headcanon-when-they-were-kids-and_**

**_head canon, so yeah. Anyways, hope you liked the chapter!_**


	2. Chapter 2

_** First of all, I'm really, really, REALLY sorry I took so freaking long with the update. Long story short, my AP classes kicked my ass. But, given it's summer, you can probably expect a few updates. I'm no longer making promises though, because I don't want to let people down. However, I will see this story through to the end, so don't worry about me abandoning it.**_

_**Anyways, happy reading! (Or not so happy reading, given the Zombie Apocalypse and all.)**_

* * *

"Eren, where are you going?" Armin asked, noticing how Eren had grabbed his jacket – a sure fire sign that he was about to run off somewhere.

After Hannes and Shadis' warning, the 104th, albeit terrified and reluctant, remained in their dorms: some paced up and down in their rooms whilst others made quick phone calls to their families. Eren, on the other hand, seemed to have other plans.

"I'm going to get mom."

Armin recognized the determined look in Eren's eyes – his next words were doomed to be close to futile. "It's dangerous out there! They told us to stay here while they begin to evacuate civilians because this is the safest place –"

"In town," Eren finished, "Yeah, I kinda heard. That's why I'm going to get mom and bring her back here."

"But Eren –"

"No. No, Armin, I'm not staying." He put on his jacket. "You can stay here if you'd like. I promise I'll be back; it's just - I have to make sure mom's okay."

Mikasa came to stand beside Eren. "I'm going with you," she stated, making sure that it was clear that she wouldn't let Eren talk her out of it.

Eren seemed to want to argue but just shrugged his shoulders, "Suit yourself." He gave Armin one last fleeting look, "Be right back."

Then he and Mikasa snuck out of the dorms and ran into the night, leaving Armin rooted to the spot, hoping, _praying, _that they'd be back safe and sound.

* * *

Connie had heard the whole conversation from the top of the stairs. Eren's words had struck him – how couldn't he have thought about it before?

He burst into Jean and Marco's room where he knew Sasha would be and exclaimed, "I'm going to go get my parents!"

"What the fuck are you talking about, Springer?" Jean deadpanned.

"I'm bringing my mom and dad here – this is the safest place in town, right?" Connie said, echoing the words he'd heard downstairs.

"Um, Connie? I don't think that's the best idea," Marco gently began, trying to deter Connie from his insane idea to disobey direct orders and go out and face who knew what.

"Massive understatement," Jean snorted with a roll of his eyes.

"I'll go with you," Sasha piped up from where she was sitting on Marco's bed. She stood up and regarded the bag of chips in her hand, "You and Eren are the only ones with families in town – the rest of ours are far away." She turned to Marco and Jean, "Whatever the hell's going on, this 'virus' that's going around – I'm nervous as shit about my family. And I know both of you are, too." They looked away slightly as she said that – the truth in her words seemed like a bit too much with the current predicament they were all in. "Shouldn't we at least," Sasha continued, "help Connie out so that one less person is anxious about things they can't control?"

She had them floored. Sasha had never seemed so serious before. The only sound that could be heard as the other two decided on what they were going to do was the crunching noises coming from Sasha as she munched on her chips.

Jean sighed, trying to seem annoyed, "I guess it wouldn't be good 'camaraderie' if I let you two dumbasses go off on your own." He turned to see what Marco would say.

"After such moving words from Sasha, it's hard to say no," Marco mused. He looked at Connie and nodded, "We're in."

Connie was touched – he'd expected Sasha to come along given that she was his best friend, but Marco and Jean? This was a whole new level of kindness and generosity – even for Marco.

"The sooner we leave the better," Connie began, looking out of the room's window. He gauged the distance from it to the ground. "Marco, do you think we'd die if we snuck out through here?"

Marco laughed, "Connie, this whole situation seems like suicide – death by daring-window-escape would be the least of our troubles."

"I mean, if you're really worried we can always let Jean test it out," Sasha supplied, popping one last chip in her mouth before she crumpled up the bag and threw it away.

"Haha, very funny," Jean muttered, going over to the window and throwing it open, slightly hoping that maybe, just maybe, death by daring-window-escape would be the worst of their troubles.

* * *

The noises she heard from her small apartment roused Carla from her sleep. _Probably just Mrs. Jimenez upstairs, _she thought, hoping that the poor woman's fever had finally gone down. It wasn't until the door to her bedroom was opened that she realized the noises she'd been hearing had been from her own apartment all along.

"Eren?" Carla asked, groggily discerning the silhouettes that were framed by the hallway's lights, "Mikasa? What are you both doing here so late?"

"Mom, we've gotta go," Eren answered without preamble, grabbing a thick sweater for his mom and tossing Mikasa a pair of sweats that she would help Carla put on. "Some stuff happened; I'll explain a little more when you're done getting dressed."

Waiting in the living room a little impatiently, Eren ran possible explanations through his head that would portray urgency but would downplay the actual danger – his mom would be _pissed _if she knew he and Mikasa were out traipsing at night with a possible pandemic in Japan. In the end, he settled with telling her everything he knew about the "situation" – meaning, close to nothing.

Just then, Mikasa came around the corner, pushing Carla's wheelchair and stopped right in front of Eren, "We're ready."

"Okay," Eren breathed, running a hand through his hair. He was about to start heading for the front door when his mom cleared her throat.

"Eren," she began in warning, meaning that she hadn't forgotten that he'd promised to explain what was going on.

He turned and gave Mikasa a pleading look – one that almost begged for a little help at explaining what was going on. Mikasa shrugged, signaling that if she was left to explain she wouldn't even try to lie to Carla. Eren tried to see if his mom knew anything at all, "Haven't you heard about what's going on?"

She waved his question aside, "Of course not. I was up in Mrs. Jimenez's apartment taking care of her – she's been sick these past few days." Carla craned her neck to look at Mikasa and try to read her stoic expression, "Why? What's happened?"

After Eren and Mikasa exchanged one last look, Mikasa began, "An…incident happened. The police and our military supervisors have been dispatched to evacuate citizens and send them to Tokyo. The trainees," she motioned between herself and Eren, "will stay at MARIA –" Carla seemed to want to protest at that but Mikasa continued after signaling for silence, "which is the safest place in town. And, since its safe, we're taking you back with us."

"But, is it okay for you to take me to MARIA?" Carla asked, looking from Mikasa to Eren and back. Then her face hardened, realization dawning on her, "Your superiors don't know you're here, do they?"

"Well, the truth is -" Eren stuttered out.

"No, they don't," Mikasa deadpanned, not even bothering to waste time by beating around the bush.

"So, the sooner we leave, the sooner we get back, right?" Eren quickly supplied, walking briskly to the front door and opening it, all the while avoiding his mother's gaze.

Mikasa began to wheel her out towards the hallway, Eren just keeping out of arms reach so that his mother couldn't reach out and smack him on the back of the head for lying and disobeying his superiors. Carla then turned to Eren, worry etched on her face. "What about everyone else?" she gestured to the apartment complex, signaling to her neighbors homes.

Eren quickly answered that, trying to get back into his mother's good books, "The police force is only a few blocks away – they'll be here in about half an hour to evacuate." He gave his mother what he hoped was a reassuring smile, "They'll be fine, mom."

His mother nodded but didn't seem wholly satisfied. They got to the elevator, climbed inside, and Mikasa pressed the button for the ground floor. The elevator wheezed to life and slowly began to descend. No one really spoke, each one worried about different things and wondering what exactly their future had in store.

Suddenly, the lights began to flicker before completely going out. Carla reached behind her and grabbed a hold a Mikasa's hand before groping blindly and taking Eren's hand into her own as well. The only sound was their breathing; slow, collected, calm, but slowly raising in hitch as fear began to settle in their bones. Carla squeezed her children's hands.

There was a resounding screech as the elevator forcefully lurched to a stop, throwing everyone off balance. "What's going on?" Mikasa whispered, trying to keep her voice steady. Then, as if in response, the elevator gave a tired groan. It was long, eerily long, and almost deafeningly loud.

But not loud enough to mask the grinding of metal on metal as the elevator started to descend again at a crawl before picking up speed at an alarming rate as the elevator began to fall.

* * *

Armin waited anxiously near the front door, sitting on the steps and trying to recall anything he'd learned during his medical training that could maybe help them at all in their current situation.

A muffled thud, however, jostled him from his thoughts. He got up from his place on the steps and went to the window by the door where the noise had originated from; he glanced out the window, certain there was something outside. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard another thud followed by a faint hiss of pain.

"Jean – holy shit! You made jumping out of there look easy!" a voice – Connie's – called out.

"First of all, I didn't jump, dumbass – I climbed down. And secondly – be fucking quiet. We're trying to sneak out, remember?" Jean whispered back.

Connie gave a snort in response. There were two other thuds, signaling that more people were outside.

"Let's try to be fast – and safe," someone – Marco, most likely – advised.

There was some muffled rustling. "It'd be best if we just took the shortcut to your house, right?" a girl – unmistakably Sasha – suggested.

"Yeah," Connie answered, "Let's go." Then there were retreating footsteps before silence once again settled on the scene.

Armin had no idea what to do. He'd heard the whole exchange – heard them mention that they were going to Connie's house, probably to go get Connie's parents, just like Eren.

That brought Armin up short.

_ They were going to pull an Eren._

Not only was that dangerous – it was damn near suicidal. Armin had already been debating whether or not he should tell someone about Mikasa and Eren's daring rescue mission, but now with Connie, Sasha, Jean, and Marco out there Armin felt that that was just way too many people risking their lives. Eren's mom's apartment was only a 10 minute walk from MARIA, but Connie's place…on a good day, it was at least a 30 minute trip. If something went wrong, they may never make it back safely.

He bit his lip, still not sure whether telling Shadis and Hannes would help; if anything, Eren would just get mad at him. However, he'd be here, and safe, along with his mom, Connie's parents, and the others.

Finally have made up his mind, Armin braced himself for whatever was to come and went outside into the biting cold, briskly making his way to Shadis and Hannes' office.

* * *

It had been a tiring walk but they made it to Connie's house in 20 minutes thanks to the shortcut. The group emerged from a copse of trees dusting each other off, Jean still cursing profusely after having tripped on an overgrown root and run into Marco, sending them both sprawling to the ground.

"There's my place!" Connie called out, bounding up the sidewalk and heading towards his house. Despite the late hour, the lights were turned on, showing that someone was still up.

Sasha jogged to catch up to Connie. "Just try not to freak them out too much, alright?" she suggested, knowing that it was going to be scary enough having your kid and his friends telling you you had to run away from home due to some unknown "virus" – they really didn't need any of Connie's usual theatrics.

They continued on briskly until they were right at Connie's front door, Marco and Jean still a little behind. It wasn't until they had joined Sasha and Connie that Connie felt confident enough to knock on the door. He had just lifted his hand to knock when –

"Hey, look Connie – it's your parents," Marco said averting his gaze with a crimson blush and nudging Connie as he motioned to the window.

From their place at the door, they had a clear view of the living room through front window. There were Connie's parents; his dad was sitting on the couch with his back to them, his head slightly thrown back; his mom was kneeling down in front of him, her head between his legs and the rest of her mostly obscured by her husband and the rest of the furniture in the living room.

Jean coughed, obviously trying to keep from laughing. "Connie, dude, didn't you say your mom had been feeling kinda sick? If you ask me she seems perfectly fine – or well, at least her throat game's pretty strong."

Connie punched Jean's arm, face bright red. "Shut up," Connie whined, "this is so awkward – I'll never be able to un-see it." He covered his eyes in an attempt to blot out the image that would probably forever be seared onto his retinas.

"You guys are so immature," Sasha sighed despite the pink that tinted her cheeks, "your parents do fondue, Connie. If this is their foreplay, let them have fun. How else do you think you came to the world?" Connie made a sound at the back of his throat that sounded as if he were being strangled as Jean began to laugh. Marco just managed to shush him when Sasha lifted her hand to knock on the door. "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Springer, we're about to interrupt in some pretty intimate stuff," Sasha apologized before knocking on the hard wood door three times.

They had expected a hasty clean-up sequence between Connie's mom and dad – probably some profuse apologizing on Connie's mom's part and at least a sheepish grin from Connie's dad. However, the reaction speed was severely delayed.

Connie's mom slowly stopped what she was doing, but Connie's dad gave no indication of having heard the door. Then, she slowly began to turn to the source of the noise.

Marco gasped as they finally saw what was wrong with the scene.

Her face was covered in blood and her eyes were rolled back only showing the whites. She slowly stood up, using Connie's dad as support and managing to slightly shift him in the process only to show the gaping hole in his stomach and the blood dribbling out of his mouth. Shiny pink ribbons hung out of his stomach like streamers, twitching ever so slightly. The look in his eyes was blank, unseeing – the look of the dead.

"What the fuck," Jean all but shrieked, taking a step back.

Connie stood rooted to the spot, disbelieving what he was seeing and not understanding what was going on. One word, however, bubbled up to the surface of his mind, a word he'd only heard jokingly, in movies, and in books; a word that he refused to use out loud despite how fitting it seemed.

_ Zombie._

* * *

"Mi-Mikasa! Mikasa!" Eren screamed over the screeching of the elevator. She turned and met his gaze, fear in her eyes. "The brake!" he pointed behind her while still clinging to the handrail to keep upright.

She glanced at where he pointed and saw the brake; it was old and rusty, however it would probably do the trick. Mikasa let go of Carla's hand and turned around, grabbing the brake with both hands before pulling as hard as she could.

There was a resounding shriek as the brakes began to kick in, followed by a harsh thud that made Eren and Mikasa lose their balance and even caused Carla to almost fall out of her chair. After so much noise, the silence that settled once the elevator had stopped falling was almost eerie.

"A-are you alright?" Carla asked weakly, turning to her kids and trying to see if they were at all hurt.

Eren nodded, getting to his feet and dusting himself off. Mikasa gave a loud sigh of relief before moving to the elevator door. "Hey, Eren, help me out with this," Mikasa said, nodding towards the door.

He went to Mikasa's side and figured out what she was going to try to do immediately. Since the power was out, the elevator door wasn't going to be opening any time soon, so they'd have to get it open their own way. "Okay," he began, "on the count of three."

"One," they counted in unison, wedging their fingers in between the thin crack of the elevator door.

"Two," Mikasa followed, trying to settle into a stance where she felt she'd be able to get the most leverage.

"Three!" Eren called out, throwing his weight back as he yanked the door open.

The doors gave out with a groan and, after a few hard tugs from Eren and Mikasa, completely opened up. Only a little bit of weak light filtered in from above their heads, from a space about a foot and half in height. Aside from that, they were in the dark.

Carla quickly found her cell phone amongst the pockets of her sweater and flipped on the camera's light, shining it into the darkness to discern their surroundings.

"Fuck," Eren breathed, quickly getting a scolding eye from his mother. He glanced out of the elevator door. "We were only a few seconds away from crashing into the ground," he said, stepping out onto the concrete floor, "I'm guessing we're underground?"

"Yeah, we are," Carla answered, "this is where everyone keeps their cars parked."

There was sudden movement outside of their field of vision – just enough movement to cause alarm, but not enough to be able to see what it was. "What was that?" Mikasa asked as Eren climbed back into the elevator.

"Probably just a dog spending the night in here to get out of the cold," Carla reassured, trying to keep the nervous edge from her voice, "they come around all the time." There was a growl from out in the dark that almost validated her point.

Almost.

Eren had begun to examine where the elevator had stopped: three quarters of the elevator was underground and the other quarter was up on the ground floor. He attempted to hoist himself up, and upon seeing that he could, turned to his mother and Mikasa. "It'd be much, much easier to just pull ourselves and mom out through this hole, right? I mean, if we don't go through here, we'd have to go around in the dark until we find the stairs and then we'd have to struggle with the stairs themselves."

Mikasa nodded, quickly going over to where Eren was standing. "I'll go up first, then you can help mom get through and hand us the wheelchair before you come up."

"Sounds like a plan," Eren smiled, giving Mikasa a thumbs up as Mikasa grabbed a hold of the ground floor's edge.

She was about to boost herself out of the elevator when Carla, calm and collected despite how forced it seemed, asked, "Eren, M-Mikasa – what exactly does the virus do?"

"We're still not sure," Eren admitted, "we weren't told by Hannes or Shadis." He gave his mom a quizzical look, "Why?"

"Do you think it has anything to do with them?" Carla pressed shakily, grabbing a hold of the hem of Eren's shirt and giving a sharp tug.

Eren turned around and saw someone seemingly walking towards them. He could barely make them out since they were still in the dark, away from Carla's cell phone light. However, once they reached the outer ring of the light, Eren felt his heart drop. The person – they, they just weren't _right._ They seemed unseeing, eyes white in their sockets, and the way they walked seemed unnatural – their shoulders were hunched and their hands were curled like talons. However, what was the most unsettling thing about them was the blood that dribbled out of their mouth, dripping onto their clothes.

Trying to seem courageous – and helpful – Eren took a few steps towards the man. "Hey, you okay, man?" he asked, trying to get the man's attention. The man turned, sniffing the air and cocking his head from side to side as if trying to see where exactly Eren was standing. Eren got out of the elevator and took another step closer, "You don't look so good."

Having seemingly located Eren, the man turned and bared bloody teeth. He hissed and the noise echoed throughout the empty parking garage. Or the _seemingly_ empty parking garage since his hiss quickly gathered a chorus of clicks and growls in response. Then the man lunged, arms outstretched in an attempt to grab Eren.

Years of training had sharpened Eren's reflexes, so it was almost natural for Eren to respond to the man's aggression with a swift roundhouse kick that sent the man flying only to land in a crumpled heap a few feet away. "Shit, man, what the hell's your…" Eren began, but quickly trailed off when he noticed the other people – the other _things _– that were slowly ambling towards the source of the noise.

After one quick glance around, Eren ran back to the elevator. "Let's go, let's go, let's go," he repeated, helping Mikasa hoist herself onto the ground floor. He attempted to pick up his mom, but, given her weak legs and her heavy cast, couldn't do more than lift her into his arms; he couldn't get her anywhere near Mikasa, so they couldn't pull her out the way they'd planned.

"Eren, go," Carla said, shutting Eren up before he began to protest, "go with Mikasa and I'll wheel myself closer to you two. Then I'll try to stand; with the both of you combined, it should be easy to lift me up."

"Okay," Eren agreed, sitting her down in her chair. He gave the room another quick sweep, noticing that the ambling figures were getting closer. Whatever they were - and he had a strong feeling he _knew_ what they were – he just knew the spelled trouble. And he also _knew _that they had something to do with the epidemic. He quickly scrambled up through the gap and turned back with Mikasa to reach for his mom.

They both leaned in as far as they dared, hands outstretched as Carla did the same; they struggled and shifted, and tried, _tried,_ to reach for each other but just couldn't. Then the elevator started to slowly inch down, the emergency brake having given out.

"Mom!" Eren gasped, panic bubbling in his chest as he felt the elevator's ceiling starting to descend upon Mikasa and himself.

She only gave him a pained look – an attempt to hide her fear of the things that were inevitably getting nearer. "Eren," she began, but was cut off.

"Mikasa, grab that side," Eren instructed, having pulled out of the elevator with Mikasa, "We need to keep the elevator from moving." They stood side by side and held onto the ceiling of the elevator, trying to pull it up with all of their strength. A sudden outburst of growls almost made them stop as fear momentarily froze them. Eren turned to Mikasa, trying to keep the panicked edge out of his voice, "Hurry, Mikasa!"

"I know!" Mikasa answered, struggling to also keep calm as she tried to make the elevator move – to at least make the elevator _budge_.

"They're coming," Carla said, the fear in her voice tangible. However, the look in her eyes was fierce and determined as she locked eyes with her son, "Eren, take Mikasa and run. Hurry!"

"I want to run, okay?" Eren retorted, "So, let us hurry up and get you out!" He pulled with all his might, throwing as much muscle into it as he could. His hand slipped, and he cut himself on sharp piece of metal, which only made it harder to try to pull up the elevator. The blood on the palm of his hand made his hold on the elevator slippery, which added to the panic and frustration Eren was feeling, only making the situation worse.

"My legs don't work properly; I can't run even if I get out," Carla reasoned, almost imploring that Eren should leave and take Mikasa to safety. "Do you understand?" she turned from Eren to Mikasa, urging them to run.

Eren swallowed past the lump in his throat, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes, "I'll carry you and run!" He began to pull at the elevator desperately, doing all he could to lift the damn thing up.

"Why can't you just listen to what I say for once!?" Carla snapped, "Please just listen to me! Just one last time!" she pleaded, turning to Mikasa whom she knew would see reason, "Mikasa!"

It was almost comical, the way they didn't even really know what the hell was actually going on, the way they had seen those people and had just _known _that they would bring death.

The way they'd just known, without ever saying it, that those things down there were going to kill them.

"No…no!" Mikasa screamed as she kept up her futile attempts to pull the elevator up. If anything, the elevator creaked a few inches lower, making Eren and Mikasa even more desperate to pull the thing up.

"At this rate, all three of us will…" Carla trailed off when the sound of running footsteps was heard. Suddenly, an iron rod was wedged between the ground floor and the elevator's ceiling, keeping the thing from inching lower any further. "Hannes!" Carla shouted, recognizing the blonde man to be Eren's superior and her husband's old colleague. "Take the kids and run!"

Hannes gave her a small smile, "Don't take me so lightly, Carla. I'll take care of those things downstairs and save all three of you." He took off the way he'd come, searching for the stairs.

He only managed to hear Carla scream out, "Wait! You can't fight them! There's too many!" _She's right, _he thought, taking the stairs two at a time, _I can definitely save both of the kids. But right now I can prove that I can save all three. _He reached the parking garage, quickly taking out his handgun. Hannes tried to turn on the lights, but it was no use. He pulled out the flashlight he'd been carrying and flicked it on, sweeping it from side to side. With a gasp, he dropped the flashlight to the ground.

There were mangled bodies strewn throughout the parking garage, blood painting the pavement red. Hunched over a few of the bodies were other _things _who were ravenously ripping the carcasses apart, tearing into the corpses with hands and teeth before gulping the hot blood and flesh down. Hannes felt his blood run cold and his heart stop. He quickly put his gun back in its holster before he dashed up the stairs and back to the ground floor lobby.

Eren and Mikasa had managed to pull their mom up to the gap, but the gap was now too small for her to fit through. She held onto Eren and Mikasa, still trying to convince them to run when Hannes appeared, grabbing Eren from around the waist and hoisting him over his shoulder. He grabbed Mikasa's arm and pulled her sharply to her feet.

"Hey, Hannes - !" Eren screamed, desperately trying to go back to his mom. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"Thank you," Carla whispered. She could feel hands begin to grab her, trying to drag her down, but she clung onto the edge with all her might, just to be able to see her kids.

"Mom's still trapped in there!" Eren shouted, trying to break from Hannes' grasp as Mikasa also attempted to wretch her arm from Hannes.

"Eren! Mikasa!" Carla screamed, feeling nails dig into her skin and draw blood. "Be safe!" she continued to scream, "I love y-" she felt a sharp pain in her stomach that cut her off, making her cough, splattering the floor with blood. _Don't go_, she thought, feeling the hand pull and yank at her insides, draining her life away.

"Hannes, stop!" Eren yelled, "we can still go back and get mom – " Eren stopped mid-sentence, seeing his mom waving frantically at them, as if trying to scream. Blood dribbled out of her mouth, but her eyes – her eyes burned with an intensity he'd never seen before. They burned with such raw emotion that it hurt to look at; then, it was gone, the light snuffed and extinguished. Eren felt his own heart stop as he watched his mother, limp and lifeless, be dragged down; down, down, down, and away, to a place where the light would never again adorn her features.

* * *

"Connie," Sasha managed to stutter out, despite her fear and revulsion. She grabbed Connie's hand and began to make her way down the driveway at a brisk pace, trying to put space between the group and whatever was inside Connie's house. Connie refused to budge.

"B-but, my parents…" he whispered, reaching for the front door.

Jean grabbed him and roughly pulled him back, "We've gotta go – we obviously had no idea what we were going up against – " There was a loud bang as Connie's mom began to hit the window; despite her albeit sluggish movements, cracks had begun to spider web on the glass. "Connie, we've – got – to – go!"

Shaking Jean off, Connie took a step towards the window just as it shattered sending glass shards everywhere. Marco leapt from his place quivering beside Sasha and tackled both Jean and Connie to the ground, getting in between them and Connie's mom.

"Are you guys okay?" Marco asked, feeling tiny pinpricks of blood begin to form on his arm from the specks of glass that managed to pierce his skin.

"This isn't a time for questions, Marco!" Jean scolded, quickly jumping to his feet and pulling Marco up with him. Sasha ran forward and picked up Connie, who was all but unresponsive, and gave the boys a worried look.

The growl from behind reminded them of the dire circumstances they were in, jumpstarting their survival instincts again.

With Connie no longer moving – hell, it seemed like he wasn't even breathing – it was obvious someone was going to have to carry him. Marco didn't need the others to tell him what he had to do; he quickly picked up Connie, effortlessly throwing him over his shoulder. More glass shattered as Connie's mom began climbing out the window. The group was about to run back the way they'd come when audible sniffing could be heard coming from the darkness.

"Jean – " Sasha worriedly began, impatiently patting Jean's back. He'd stopped in his tracks, squinting at the movement he'd seen in the dark. Sasha had turned to look at Connie's mom, who was picking herself up after having gotten out of the window – completely ignoring her torn flesh from the glass.

"Shh!" Jean hissed, feeling hysteria trying to impair his judgement, "I thought I saw something." He did his best to try to focus on whatever was moving in the dark.

"I'm sure it was nothing, Jean," Marco began, giving a quick glance over his shoulder at Connie's mom who was surely making her way to them, "let's go." He began to walk but was stopped by Jean immediately.

"Into the trees," Jean whispered.

"What – why?" Sasha protested, "we'll get los-"

"Now!" Jean shouted, grabbing Sasha's hand and pushing Marco towards the tree line. A chorus of growls and clicks was suddenly heard from down the street – from where they had been about to head to.

"Are there-" Marco began to ask.

"More?" Jean answered, "I think so, we'll have to head back through the woods."

They had just run into the trees when a bright light pierced through the night's darkness, illuminating all the people shuffling on the road towards Connie's house. The jeep kept on it's straight course, mowing down those in it's way. Those who got mown down, in exchange, didn't even seem to notice their coming end. The jeep finally screeched to a halt in front of the Springer household, a lone figure climbing out.

"Is it one of ours?" Jean asked, recognizing the military vehicle, yet unable to identify its driver.

Marco squinted at the figure, keeping a tight hold on Connie who, despite seeming completely shut down, could bolt away from them at any minute.

"Shit, where are the kids…" the man was heard asking, glancing around frantically, completely missing Connie's mom, whom, on account of all the noise, was making her way towards him.

"Oh my God, it's Shadis," Sasha breathed, getting up from her place where'd she'd been crouching behind a bush, "he can take us back to MARIA!"

Sasha bounded out of the tree line, followed by Jean, Marco and Connie. They all sprinted for the jeep and towards Shadis, ready to just get the hell out of there and refusing to actually accept what had just happened.

"Shadis! Shadis!" Marco called out, "We're here!"

He turned, a scowl on his face, "Where the hell've you kids been – " Cutting himself off, his expression quickly changed to something bordering terror when he saw Connie's mom reaching over the co-pilot's seat in an attempt to get to him. Shadis pulled his revolver out of its holster faster than any of them could process what he was about to do – but Sasha understood, one second too late.

"Wait, Shadis, no - !" She began shouting, hoping to spare Connie the sight.

But, it was too late.

A deafening gunshot was heard as the bullet blew Connie's mom back, a hole in the middle of her forehead.

The group had already begun to slow down as they neared the jeep, but came to a halt as they watched Connie's mom slump over the passenger door, unmoving. Marco set Connie down slowly, seemingly aware that Connie needed space. His eyes were wide, glistening with unshed tears.

"M-mom?" he choked out, beginning to shake uncontrollably, seeing but not _understanding_ what had just happened. His mom was fine, she'd only been sick, he'd _seen _her just days ago – and his dad; he'd gone out to grab his mom some medicine with him just yesterday.

When did everything change?

Hisses close to their left jumpstarted Sasha, Jean, and Marco again, forcing them to tear their eyes away from Connie's mom and to focus on the task at hand: Getting the hell out of there. Shadis immediately jumped into the driver's seat, issuing a quick, "Get in!" refusing to meet the teen's eyes.

They climbed in quickly, sweeping Connie up along with them as they piled into the back, trying to completely ignore Mrs. Springer's body. Shadis immediately began to drive, not even bothering to at least get Mrs. Springer's body off the side of the jeep – everyone heard the sickening thud as her body slid off the passenger side and collided with the concrete, cringing with the knowledge that that was probably going to be the last of his mother that Connie would ever see.

Complete silence took up the first few seconds of the drive, aside from Connie's choked breathing. Jean knew he couldn't handle it anymore. "Shadis, what the fuck were those things?"

Shadis looked at them through the rearview mirror, taking in their various levels of fear - and in Connie's case, complete shock – and decided he was done giving them bullshit answers. Bullshit answers were what pushed these kids to abandon whatever little _childhood _could have been salvaged in this mess and thrust them to become soldiers.

"That," Shadis began, turning his attention back to the road, "is what the virus does." He sighed, the guilt from having had to put down Connie's mom like an animal right in front of the kid beginning to take hold, "This is what we're dealing with - a war with the undead."

* * *

_**Okay, so, um, yeah.**_

_**I really hope you guys liked it, and once again, sorry for the delay. **_

_**I'm kinda curious about whether I genuinely made you guys sad or not.**_

_**Once again, thanks for reading!**_


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